Amazing Grace is one of my favorite movies. Beautiful story, beautiful script, beautiful acting. It's even based (somewhat loosely—I do so love Rufus Sewell, but he/the writers took some serious liberties with the character of Thomas Clarkson) on true events.
In one of the scenes, Wilberforce and Pitt have a footrace across the yard, with no shoes. At the end, Wilberforce says something about how he can never feel the thorns until he stops running; Pitt replies that he just needs to keep running.
"Is that some heavy-handed metaphorical advice for me, Mr. Pitt?"
How does this apply to today? It doesn't. Not really. I'm always trying to think of fantastic extended spiritual metaphors for my experiences with running. It doesn't work—everything I come up with just sounds pretentious.
So, for the record, I used to have a vague idea that if once I ran a marathon, distance running would forever after become a no-pain, no-sweat walk in the park. Not so. Running is killing me! Sometimes I don't even want to do it.
I had to positive self-talk my way from beginning to end this evening, and it was only 3 miles.
To give myself a little credit, I am learning to run a new way, and it takes its toll on some leg muscles I haven't developed yet. That, and there is the full time job that has to be worked around.
Sometimes I wish I had some heavy-handed metaphorical advice from Billy Pitt. After all, he became Prime Minister at the age of 23.
What is this new way you are running?
ReplyDeleteI have nothing profound to say, but I thought you should know: everything about this post made me smile. :)
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